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Senate scandal: Brazeau reveals ‘backroom deal’ to go easy on him

OTTAWA—‎ An alleged “backroom deal” Friday provided the latest twist in a week of turmoil and high-stakes drama in a Senate spending scandal that appears to be an ever more pressing problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government.

Harper’s push to suspend three embattled senators without pay ran into more trouble when Sen. Patrick Brazeau alleged he was offered leniency if he agreed to publicly apologize for his spending missteps.

Sen. Pamela Wallin is escorted into the Senate by security as she arrives at on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (Oct. 24, 2013) (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Sen. Patrick Brazeau revealed what he called a "back-room deal" Friday that would have given him a lighter sanction than fellow senators in hot water over expenses if he would apologize. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Brazeau told the Senate that Claude Carignan, the Conservative leader in the upper chamber, took him aside hours earlier and made the offer if the Quebec senator agreed to publicly apologize for spending infractions.

“I was essentially offered a backroom deal, and the backroom deal was if I stood in this chamber, apologize to Canadians and took responsibility for my actions, that my punishment would be lesser than what is proposed in (Carignan’s) motion,” Brazeau said. The motion, which could be voted on next week, would strip Brazeau and senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin of their Senate pay.

Carignan did not deny he took Brazeau aside Friday morning, saying as a friend he was just trying to help out.

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“He finds himself in a difficult situation,” Carignan said. “I spoke to him out of friendship, saying ‘Senator Brazeau, please, suggest something. Apologize. Perhaps a lighter sanction, something that we can come up with to find the right balance.’ Perhaps I had too strong an urge to help him.”

The go-easy proposal to Brazeau is a stark contrast from Carignan’s position in the Senate, where he has pressed forward with Harper’s argument that tough sanctions are necessary to defend the integrity of the institution.

But Carignan later told reporters he would consider amendments to the motion to suspend Brazeau, Wallin and Duffy without pay. This seemed to move Carignan closer to the group of dissident senators — including Liberals and several Conservatives — who say it’s unfair to sanction the three senators without a hearing or unless they have been charged or convicted of a crime.

“Like every motion, it could be amended,” Carignan told reporters. “When we realize that somebody apologized to Canadians, (for) example, it’s something that we could take in account and perhaps change the motion.” He added, “We are not stubborn.”

This latest surprise in the Senate affair came as Harper was telling a Toronto radio audience he has no intention of backing off his drive to have Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau dropped from the public payroll.

“I think Canadians are actually very clear on this. I know the majority of Conservative senators are (and) a vast majority of our caucus and Canadians as well,” Harper said on former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory’s radio show on Newstalk 1010.

Asked about complaints that the three senators are being railroaded, Harper said the Senate has been investigating the activities of Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau for more than a year.

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“It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that these senators in some cases have collected literally up to six figures worth of ineligible expenses — did so willingly over a long period of time.

“What I think most Canadians would say is, if you did that in your work, your boss wouldn’t wait for you to be convicted of a crime,” Harper said. “Your boss would say that and that alone requires there’s some action be taken in terms of your job.”

So it’s not good enough for the senators to say they’ll return the money while still being paid by taxpayers, the prime minister said.

Canadians expect that “when people abuse a position of trust at this level and over this time period — and this clearly — that there will be appropriate action taken that frankly removes from them from the public payroll,” Harper concluded.

Tory also asked Harper about his position that he was not told at the time about the decision by his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, to provide a $90,000 cheque to Duffy to pay back the senator’s inappropriate expense claims.

“Obviously, I didn’t know,” Harper said, adding that had he known he would have advised Wright not to do so. The payment led to Wright’s resignation and an RCMP investigation.

“I think I had every right to know. I think I should have been told. I think I clearly should have been consulted. I was not,” said Harper in one of his most personal comments so far on the Wright-Duffy affair. Harper noted that Wright accepted responsibility for the decision when he resigned.

Earlier Friday in the Senate, members kept up their manoeuvring over the motions to suspend Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau.

Sen. Yonah Martin gave notice the Conservatives would seek to wrap up debate on the motions after a week of Liberal filibuster. The Liberals, led by Sen. James Cowan, argued the matters should be dealt with by a special committee of the Senate.

Cowan said the government’s push to shut down debate and speed up a vote on the suspension motions makes him wonder what is “being covered up.”

“Every day that goes by something else comes up,” Cowan said. “This whole thing is unravelling and I think these motions are blowing up in the government’s face.”

Also, Wallin tabled a series of documents detailing her lawyer’s concerns about conduct of the investigation into her travel expenses, as well as an email exchange showing top members of the Prime Minister’s Office — including Harper’s current chief of staff, Ray Novak — were involved in drafting Wallin’s resignation letter from the Conservative caucus.

Wallin maintained the Senate debate is an inappropriate venue to hear her case.

“Due process is not possible in this chamber, where it seems the majority wants to put my head on a platter,” Wallin said.

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